We Are Three
by LynstHolin
Summary: Scorpius Malfoy/Lorcan and Lysander Scamander. Multi-chapter. On his very first ride on the Hogwarts Express, Scorpius gets the nick-name 'Cry-Baby Malfoy'. But he also meets the Scamander twins. MILD SLASH
1. Chapter 1

They were everywhere, the aliens. They wore cloaks with the Hogwarts insignia and carried cages with owls in them. They chattered, giggled, skipped, shouted, squabbled, ran, and shoved each other. "Those are your schoolmates," his mother said in an artificially chipper voice, "Won't it be nice to meet them?"

Scorpius pulled a face. He was not used to children. At the manor, it was his Mum and dad, Grandmother and Grandfather, Grandfather's hunting dogs, Grandmother's Persian cats, the peacocks, the house elves, and a Capuchin monkey named Mimi who liked to sleep wrapped around Scorpius' head. There were also the people who visited his parents, like Uncle Greg. He wasn't really Scorpius' uncle, but he always had time to give piggy-back rides, pretend to be a gorilla for Scorpius' amusement, and tell stories about Uncle Vincent, who died a long, long time ago. Aunt Pansy wasn't really his aunt, but she always let him crawl into her lap, and she petted him like... like he was a pet. Children seemed highly unnecessary to Scorpius.

"Here we go," his father said. Scorpius watched an entire family disappear into a seemingly solid barrier. "Follow me, Scorpius." His father and the luggage trolley vanished. Scorpius took a deep breath and ran headlong at the bricks, coming out the other side into a crowd of people. He looked around, noticing that almost every other child had an animal. "Why couldn't I bring Mimi?" Scorpius asked.

"Monkeys aren't permitted at Hogwarts," his mother answered.

"B-but who w-will M-mimi sleep with w-when I'm g-g-gone?" Scorpius' eyes filled with tears and his chin trembled.

When Draco Malfoy noticed that his son was crying, he swore under his breath and stepped in front of the boy to hide him. It was too late; several older boys had noticed. "Wah wah wah," one whined while he mimed wiping tears away.

Astoria Malfoy knelt down and hugged her son close, also crying. "Tori," Draco sighed.

"Remember, honey, it doesn't matter what house you're sorted into," Astoria told her son.

"As long as it's not Hufflepuff," Draco said.

"_Dray!_"

The train let out a blast with its steam whistle. "Come, you must get going or you'll miss the train," Draco said.

"I d-d-d-d-on't w-want t-t-to g-g-g-g-o!"

"We don't have time for this again." Draco took his son by the upper arms and placed him bodily on the train steps. The train started to move, and it was too late. Scorpius watched his parents recede away from him as he wiped his face dry. "Get yourself in the car," scolded an older student.

Moving down the aisle, Scorpius saw that most of the compartments were full. He came to one with only three children in it: a ginger girl and two black-haired boys. Scorpius shyly peeped in. "M-may I sit h-h-here?"

The older boy smirked. "You m-may not, Cry-Baby Malfoy."

"H-how do you know m-my name?"

"So you admit that your name is Cry-Baby Malfoy?"

"James," the girl said chidingly.

"Move along, Cry-Baby Malfoy," James said nastily, "Perhaps you'll find some other baby Death Eaters to sit with." James stood up and slammed the door shut.

Death Eaters? Scorpius had no idea what that meant. Further down the aisle, there was a car with only two boys in it. They were twins, with wavy hair as blond as Scorpius', and they appeared a year or so older. They looked up and smiled when Scorpius opened the door. "M-may I s-s-sit h-here?" he asked tentatively.

"Are you sure you want to sit with us?" one asked. He was wearing what looked like a bunch of walnuts strung on a leather cord around his neck.

"I-what?"

"Other people think we're quite strange. That's why there's only the two of us in this compartment. No one else wants to sit with us," said the other. He was holding a terrarium with a small, vividly red and blue frog in it.

They didn't seem any stranger to Scorpius than any other children, and they made him comfortable enough that his stutter, which usually only showed up when he was nervous or really emotional, went away again. "I really need a place to sit."

"All right. But let me check you for nose weevils, first." The boy with the necklace took out his wand.

"What are nose weevils?" Scorpius shrank back a little as the boy waved his wand.

"They like to eat bogeys. If you get too many of them, you'll break out in spots. You're clean. I should have known. Your skin is perfect. I'm Lysander, by the way. Lysander Scamander."

"And I'm Lorcan Scamander. We're twins. That's why we look so much alike," Lorcan said unnecessarily. Both boys had gray eyes, like Scorpius, but they were of a lighter shade.

"I'm Scorpius Malfoy." He moved to the nearest empty seat.

"Interesting," said Lysander. "In certain Middle Eastern cultures, the scorpion is seen as a fighter against evil. In others, the scorpion represents evil itself. Do you see yourself as evil, or as a force against evil, Scorpius?"

"I..."

"I like poisonous creatures," said Lorcan. He held up his terrarium. "Reginald here is poisonous. If you touched him, you'd die in seconds. My dad got him for me from South America. Do you have any pets, Scorpius?"

"I have a monkey named Mimi."

"Killer!" Lysander exclaimed.

"Is it a poisonous monkey?" asked Lorcan.

"There's no such thing as a poisonous monkey," said Lysander.

"You don't know that for sure."

"I don't think Mimi is poisonous," Scorpius said.

The rest of the train trip went by very fast. Scorpius didn't have to say much at all. As he listened to the twins, he realized that not all children were mindless barbarians.

...

Scorpius awaited his turn to be sorted nervously. Ahead of him was one of the black-haired boys he'd seen on the train; the younger one, not the older one that had been mean to him. "Gryffindor!" the hat proclaimed as soon as it touched the dark, tousled head.

Scorpius stepped up, acutely aware of all the eyes that were on him. "Cry-Baby Malfoy," he heard someone say. The Headmistress glared at the culprit as she lowered the hat. It fell over Scorpius' eyes, and he could no longer see a thing. "Ah, another Malfoy. Every Malfoy I've ever touched has been Slytherin, but there's something different about you. _Ravenclaw_!"

Scorpius could hear clapping and cheering. When the hat was removed, he saw that it was the Scamander twins. What luck! He had made two friends, and he was now in the same house as them. Maybe school wouldn't be as bad as he'd thought it would be.

...

Scorpius sat in the chair in front of Headmistress McGonagall's desk, face scarlet with humiliation. "I've been told that you... abused a potted plant, Mr. Malfoy. Have you anything to say about this incident?"

Having had a bit too much pumpkin juice at breakfast, Scorpius had gone into a lavatory. Alas, James Potter was also there with his gang of Quidditch players. "What are you doing in here, Cry-Baby?" he'd demanded.

"I-I have t-t-to wee."

"This is the boys. You need the girls."

"B-but I'm a _b-b-boy_."

"You cry all the time. And you _look_ like a girl." Potter reached out and grabbed a lock of Scorpius' shoulder-length hair, tugging hard. "Get a hair-cut, if you're really a boy."

"M-mum s-says th-that m-m-my h-hair m-makes me l-look v-very h-han-handsome."

Potter's gang burst out laughing. "I-i-i-is th-th-that s-s-so?" one of them said.

Potter shoved Scorpius out the door. "You can't use this bathroom, little Miss Malfoy."

Scorpius' bladder was so full, he clutched himself. He didn't think that he could make it to the next bathroom. But being a crier and a stutterer and a 'baby Death Eater' (whatever that was) brought him enough abuse already. If he wet himself, he'd best throw himself from the Astronomy Tower.

When he was sure he couldn't hold it a moment longer, he saw the potted fern. It was in a niche, and there was no one else around, so... Scorpius sighed in relief as the painful pressure in his lower belly was relieved. "What are you doing?" demanded an outraged voice. Oh, _no_. _Filch_.

Which is how he ended up in the Headmistress' office, staring down at the floor miserably. "Scorpius, you have shown yourself to be an exceptional student so far, both in regards to academics and your behavior. This incident seems a bit of out character for you. Might there be some... outside factor?" McGonagall looked at him with stern sympathy, waiting for an answer.

After three months in school, Scorpius knew that tattle-tales were held in as low regard as cry-babies. He didn't say a word.

The Headmistress sighed. "I know that school can be a very hard place for a sensitive boy to be. Please know that my office door is always open to you. You may leave, if you wish."

"I-I'm n-n-not g-getting p-p-p-pun-nished?"

"It's your first time in trouble. You get a pass."

"Y-you w-won't t-t-tell m-my p-p-p-parents?"

"Oh, of course not. It was only a fern."

"C-can I ask you something?"

"Of course." The Headmistress leaned forward.

"What's a Death Eater?"

McGonagall shook her head. "You are a very different sort of boy than your grandfather was."

When he realized that she wasn't going to say anything more about the subject, Scorpius took his leave. At the bottom of the spiral stairs, the twins were waiting for him. The sight of them made him absurdly happy. Scorpius was the only person in the school who could tell the two apart. Lysander's eyes were a tiny bit bigger, and Lorcan's nose bent to the left ever so slightly. The twins flanked him, each draping an arm across his shoulders. "Is it true she has a talking lemur in her office?" Lorcan asked.

"There's a lemur. He didn't say much."

"Is he a poisonous lemur?'

"There's no such thing as a poisonous lemur!" Lysander exclaimed.

"You don't know that for sure!"

The trio headed outside. It had snowed for the first time, and they were going to build a snowcastle.


	2. Chapter 2

Scorpius couldn't remember where he was for a few moments after he woke up, or why there were feet on his back and rump. That's right, he was in the second year dorm. The night before, the Scamander twins had pushed their beds together, and the three boys had sat under the covers telling scary stories until the wee hours of the morning. Too spooked afterwards to walk back to his own dorm, Scorpius had laid across the bottoms of the two beds to sleep. He didn't mind the feet one bit. It was as nice as having Mimi wrapped around his head.

Pretty soon, everyone in the dorm was up, getting dressed and chattering excitedly. Today was the day nearly everyone went home for the Christmas break. Scorpius could barely contain his happiness. Not only did he get to see his family and pets again, the twins were coming with him. Luna and Rolf Scamander weren't going to be home for Chirtmas, as they were currently in Australia tracking bunyips.

Scorpius was sure that he was too excited to eat, but he headed for the Great Hall with the twins anyway. Lorcan paused at the double doors, looking up at a sprig of mistletoe that some wag had hung. "No wonder my best quill went missing. Everyone knows that mistletoe is infested with nargles."

Of course, James bloody Potter was right behind them, all six feet of him. "There's no such thing as nargles."

"Of course there is!" Lorcan said, and Lysander vigorously nodded.

"Nargles. Gulping plimpies. Aquavirius maggots. I think your entire family is barmy. My dad thinks so, too, even though he's too polite to say it. I see the look he gets on his face when your mother starts talking about imaginary creatures."

"How do you know they're imaginary?" Scorpius blurted out. Uh oh. That was a mistake. James would never outright bully the twins, due to the friendship between Harry Potter and Luna Scamander, but the older boy had no such qualms when it came to Scorpius.

"What makes this your business, Miss Malfoy?" James challenged.

"Th-they're m-m-my b-best f-friends."

"Would you get out of the way, Potter?" a third year girl said as she pushed past the group that was blocking half the doorway.

"They're not your best friends, little Miss Malfoy, they're your only friends, because no one else can stand you."

"_James Sirius Potter_." Headmistress McGonagall seized James by the ear and dragged him away. Scorpius started laughing, but he cut it off fast when he saw the homocidal glare James was sending him. It was obvious that if James came across Scorpius at any time before they reached King's Cross Station, Scorpius would pay dearly for laughing.

Breakfast was otherwise uneventful. When the three boys got up to head back to their dorms to finish their packing, Scorpius found his way blocked by Rose Weasley and Xanthippe Shacklebolt. "You can't have two best friends, Malfoy," Rose said, very seriously.

"Why not?"

Rose and Xanthippe both pulled pendants out of the necks of their shirts. The pendants were curved on one side and jagged on the other. The girls held them together, and they formed one heart that said, 'Best Friends Forever'. "See? The heart is in two pieces, not three," Rose explained. Xanthippe nodded solemnly in agreement. "And no one else at Hogwarts has two best friends. You have to choose one. I just thought you should know."

...

Scorpius was silent on the train ride back to London. Not that it made much difference; the twins were more than capable of keeping up a conversation between themselves. Scorpius liked that about them; there were times he just wasn't up to talking. It was an overcast day, and Scorpius could see his reflection in the window: wide gray eyes, a pointed chin, and cheekbones just starting to emerge from the round-facedness of childhood, all framed by flaxen hair to his shoulders. He mostly resembled his father, but the shape of his eyes was from his mother. His father frequently told him with affectionate exasperation that, personality-wise, he took after his mother one-hundred percent.

As Lorcan and Lysander discussed the possibility of venomous pandas, Scorpius thought about what Rose Weasley had told him, turning it over and over again in his head. Choose just one twin? Lorcan and his fascination with poisonous creatures, Lysander's seemingly endless store of knowledge, the way the two of them bounced words and ideas off each another... Scorpius didn't think he _could_ choose.

Scorpius' fretting ceased when the train pulled into the station. He barrelled down the aisle to the exit, leaping the steps in one bound and thrwing himself onto his parents. "Scorpius, a little dignity, please," his father chided, but he was smiling. HIs mother got down on her knees and hugged him half-senseless.

The twins were standing back politely. "Are these your friends, Scorpius?" Astoria asked.

"That's Lorcan and that's Lysander."

"I'm pleased to meet you." Astoria shook Lysander's hand, but Lorcan needed both hands to hold onto his terrarium. "My, what a colorful frog."

"He quite poisonous," Lorcan said boastfully, "If you brushed just one fingertip against his skin, you'd die a most hideous death."

"Oh... my," Astoria said faintly. She backed away slightly and turned her attention to Lysander. "That's a very interesting necklace your wearing."

Lysander smiled proudly. "It's my own invention. It keeps nose weevils away. Would you like one? It's made of chicken bones and cherry pits."

"Ah, no, thank you. I haven't been bothered by... nose weevils for years." Astoria cut her eyes meaningfully at Draco, whose lips were trembling with barely-suppressed laughter.

"Can we get food from McDonald's, Dad?" Scorpius asked eagerly.

Draco's glee turned to distaste. "If you must," he sighed, "I still haven't gotten revenge on your Uncle Greg for introducing you to that pig swill."

...

When they reached the Manor, Scorpius and the twins were approached by the white peacocks. The magnificent birds bobbed their heads and fluttered their wings, begging for food. "What do you know, boys, I just so happen to have some feed in my purse." Astoria distributed a handful to each boy.

"Are they venomous?" Lorcan asked Draco.

"I'm quite sure not."

"Oh, that's too bad. I had a venomous parrot once, but he died from having too many Wrackspurts. He got so fuzzy-minded, he forgot to eat."

"You don't say," Draco said, bemused.

"Peacocks represent fidelity. They are also important symbolic creatures in alchemy and other esoteric arts," said Lysander as he spread feed on the ground. "They represent the astral realm."

Grandmother and Grandfather were waiting in the solarium, Narcissa trying to embroider a shawl while holding a playful Persian in her lap, and Lucius reading the Daily Prophet with his dogs at his feet. Scorpius excitedly hugged them both, crumpling Lucius' paper in the process. "Where's Mimi?" he asked eagerly.

Narcissa gave Lucius a look; Astoria gave Draco the same, exact look. Lucius put his paper down on his lap. "Mimi was too lonely here without you, so I gave her to another family with children."

Scorpius' eyes immediately overflowed. "You _g-g-got r-rid of M-m-im-mi_?"

"It was for her own good," Draco said, "You want her to be happy, don't you?"

What Scorpius _wanted _was to throw himself on the floor and wail, but he knew he was too old to do that, especially with guests present. He worked hard at keeping himself under control, but a sob escaped. Lucius brought his paper back up over his face with a snap.

"I told you it was a bad idea," Astoria said to Draco crossly.

Draco rubbed his head and stared at the floor. "Please, not now. It's dinner time. I just bought a case of an excellent cabernet, and I suddenly feel a need to drink quite a lot of it." All the adults headed for the drawing room, with the two women pausing to fuss over Scorpius a bit.

Scorpius worked at drying his eyes. Lorcan put an arm around him. "I cried when my parrot died. A lot."

Lysander hugged Scorpius from the other side. "And I cried when my Umgubular Slashkilter ran away."

Scorpius hiccuped a little bit longer, but the feel of the twins surrounding him calmed him down. He would have liked to have stayed that way the rest of the day, but the boys' McDonalds food awaited them, and his tummy was starting to growl.

Draco could barely tolerate the smell of Muggle fast food, and so actually eating inside the restaurant (or, as Draco referred to it, the feeding trough) had been completely out of the question. Due to use of a discreet spell, the boys' dinner was still warm and fresh. Astoria gamely unwrapped a hamburger, biting into it with a grimace. Draco laughed and shook his head as he cut into the bloody-rare filet mignon that a house elf had served to the rest of the adult Malfoys.

Lorcan and Lysander stared wide-eyed at their Happy Meal boxes. "What makes it so happy?" Lorcan asked.

"And what's a Transformer?" Lysander inquired. He was fascinated when Scorpius demonstrated how to turn the little toy truck into a robot. Not that he had any idea what a robot was.

Lorcan eyed the French fries. "How do the house elves make these all exactly the same?"

"There are no house elves. This is Muggle food."

"How do Muggles make food?" Lysander asked.

"They scrape it out of dust bins," Draco replied.

"He's joking," Scorpius said.

"Barely," Draco said.

Lysander tentatively put a fry into his mouth, taking a tiny bite. His eyes widened at the first _crunch_, and he chomped down the rest of it in seconds. "That's... that's..."

"Yummy?" Scorpius grinned and Lysander stuffed another fry into his mouth.

"They put some sort of drug in those that causes children to become addicted to them," Draco said.

"Dad's joking again, Lysander."

"No, I'm quite sure that's an actual fact," Draco drawled.

"I smell McDonald's!" someone shouted.

"Uncle Greg!" Scorpius stood up eagerly, bumping the table hard enough to make the wine slosh out of his father's glass.

A slab of a man entered the drawing room via the fireplace. Even his fingers were muscular. He picked Scorpius up as if he weighed no more than a feather pillow and dangled him upside down by his ankles until all the blood rushed to the boy's head. "I missed you, you puny little runt!"

"One of these days, I'm going to brick that fireplace up," Lucius muttered.

Lysander observed Greg Goyle with great interest. "Did you go to school with my mother? Her name was Luna Lovegood then."

Greg now had Scorpius thrown over one shoulder. "Yeah. How did you know?"

"She told me she went to school with a boy who proved that humans were descended from apes."

Greg's forehead creased as he processed that statement. Draco watched his friend with a concerned look, poised on his chair to intervene if things got ugly. Something seemed to go 'click' in Greg's brain, and he laughed uproariously. "That Loony Lovegood!"

Greg ate three filets mignon, in addition to a generous amount of fries stolen from the boys, and he washed it all down with what seemed like an entire keg of beer. When he started giving the boys piggy-back rides, Lucius excused himself, claiming to have a migraine.

At ten, Astoria showed Lorcan and Lysander to their rooms, but all three boys ended up under the covers of Scorpius' bed, which was big enough for a Quidditch team. "Did we tell you about when our parents went to Wales to look for coblynau?" Lorcan asked.

"Uh uh."

"Well," Lysander said, "they were exploring an abandoned coal mine when there was a cave-in. They were trapped for a week and nearly died. How they were saved is..."

Scorpius hung on every word, even though, as with pretty much every other Scamander tale he'd ever heard, he wasn't sure how much to believe. He oohed and aahed and gasped and laughed. But at the back of his mind were the words of Rose Weasley.

...

"For heavens sake, Tori, it's just hair! It grows back!" Draco said impatiently. Astoria wept as a house elf sheared off her son's pale, silky locks. Scorpius had insisted. He couldn't get rid of his stutter, he couldn't Obliviate everyone who'd seen him crying, but he could at least get rid of one item of bully-bait. His grandmother conjured a mirror. Looking into it, Scorpius saw that the haircut made him look even more like his father. Smiling, he hopped off the chair, and the three boys tore through the Manor, stopping to fetch their cloaks and mittens before heading for the back garden to have a snowball fight.

Twenty minutes later, the boys were all covered in snow, their clothes were sodden, and they were rolling on the ground wrestling together. Scorpius ran out of breath, and he lay on his back clutching his laughter-sore stomach. Two nearly identical faces with cold-reddened cheeks laughed down at him. Lorcan, having lost his hat, had tiny balls of snow stuck in his hair. Lysander wore a hat in the form of a panda head, with ears that actually moved. That feeling of blissful warmth that Scorpius felt so often when he was with the twins filled him again. Then Rose Weasley's words popped into his mind.

"Why do you look so sad?" Lorcan asked, "Do you still miss Mimi?"

"A person c-can only have one b-best friend, right?" Scorpius asked in a small voice.

"Says who?" Lysander said.

"R-rose Weasley and Xanthippe Sh-shacklebolt. And their n-n-necklaces. I m-mean, have you ever heard of anyone else having two b-b-best friends? I h-have to ch-choose wa-one of you, d-d-don't I?"

Lorcan made a rude noise with his mouth. "Nonsense. Since when have we ever done things like everyone else?"

"Really, Scorpius. I'm surprised you were convinced by such conventional thinking. You're going to have to be punished." Lysander started tickling Scorpius, who howled that he was going to wet himself. That was when Uncle Greg came roaring around the corner of the Manor, pretending to be the Abominable Snowman. This was shaping up to be the best Christmas Scorpius had ever had.


	3. Chapter 3

"There's no way I'll sleep tonight," Scorpius said excitedly.

"You say that every Christmas Eve," his mother said, "and you always fall asleep."

"Lorcan and Lysander will keep me awake."

"Santa doesn't like when children try to spy on him," Astoria said in a mock-scolding tone. Lucius, who was parked in a wingchair front of the fireplace with a novel set during the days of the goblin uprisings, made an odd grinding noise in his throat.

"Who's Santa?" Lorcan asked.

Scorpius looked astonished. "You don't know who Santa is? Who gives you your Christmas presents?"

"Our parents. Isn't that normal?" Lysander looked puzzled.

"You're supposed to get presents from Santa Claus, unless you're bad," Scorpius explained. "He rides in a sleigh drawn by flying reindeer and comes down the chimney."

"Why doesn't he just Floo?" Lorcan asked.

"He needs the sleigh to carry all the presents."

Lucius slapped his book down on the floor, rolled his eyes to the ceiling, and got up and stalked out. "Honestly, Tori, what are you doing to that boy? He's nearly twelve," he hissed at Astoria when he passed her. Her smile slipped a little.

"Time for bed, boys," Draco ordered.

The all the way to Scorpius' room, the twins peppered Scorpius with questions about Santa Claus. "How old is he?"

"He's a wizard, isn't he? He must be a wizard."

"Are the toys made by regular house elves, or does he have a special kind of elf?"

"Are the flying reindeer regulated by the MInistry of Magic?"

They all sat on Scorpius' bed with the covers over them like a tent, sure that they would all be awake to greet the dawn. But sometime during Lysander's point-by-point comparison of Santa Claus with the Norse god Odin, Scorpius drifted off. By the time his eyes opened again, weak December sunlight was leaking through his blue curtains. Despite the cramps in his legs from sleeping in a funny position, he leapt of of bed and tore down to the drawing room with the twins in pursuit.

A glamour transformed the drawing room into a fantastical ice cave, with stalagmites and stalactites and multi-colored lights showing through the blue-white walls. Under a ceiling-scraping Christmas tree was a huge pile of wrapped gifts, and three bulging stockings hung from the fireplace mantel, each labeled with one of the boys' names in gold embroidery.

"It looks like Santa some left things for your friends, too, Scorpius," his mother said.

Ignoring the lavish brunch spread on the table, the boys attacked the candy-stuffed stockings first. Christmas was the one day of the year that chocolate frogs and malted dragon eggs were allowed for breakfast. Then it was time to rip the wrapped gifts open. All the boys got the coming year's Quidditch annual and the latest album by the popular singing teen witch Blossom Bloodgood. As the boys unwrapped Ravenclaw jerseys, strange, hysterical laughter echoed through the Manor. "My goodness, what's going on?" Narcissa asked. Lucius tensed in his chair and drew his wand. A flock of speckle-headed birds laden with parcels flew into the room. The laughter came from them. They dropped their burdens in front of the twins and headed for the table, where they helped themselves to bacon and sausage from plates and sips of water from glasses. Lucius looked like he was going to blow up.

"Kookaburras!" Lorcan exclaimed happily. "Mum and Dad sent presents!" Inside the first parcel he opened was a cage. He opened it up and took out a creature with velvet-like brown fur and a duck's beak. He cooed to it and cradled it to his chest.

"What have you go there?" Astoria asked.

Lorcan took the creature to her. "Do you want to hold him?"

Just as Astoria was about to take the animal, Lysander said, "The duck-billed platypus is the only poisonous mammal in the world." Astoria snatched her hands back.

Lorcan scowled at his brother. "You don't know that. There could be others. Right, Dennis?" he asked the platypus. Dennis had nothing to add to the conversation.

"I have a surprise for you, boys," Astoria said brightly. "The twins have been invited to the Potters for a little while today, and you're invited, too, Scorpius. Won't it be nice to see some of your schoomates?"

No, no it would not. Albus was all right, though Scorpius didn't know him well, but James would be there. The boy who snapped his quills, spilled his ink, tripped him, and had half the school calling him M-m-mehitabel M-malfoy. The very thought made the chocolate frogs he'd eaten start churning in his stomach.

"What's wrong, sweetie?" his mother asked.

Scorpius couldn't say, of course. His mother would go marching to the Potters to tell James' parents, and things would be worse than ever. He pasted on a fake smile. "N-nothing. S-sounds f-f-fun."

Astoria looked at Draco. Draco shrugged. Narcissa got up from her chair abruptly and pulled Draco out of the room. Scorpius strained his ears trying to hear the conversation. "We can't keep it from him forever," he heard his father say. Astoria trotted out to join the argument. Lucius heaved a sigh and called out, "Draco is right, Cissy."

Scorpius started to feel sick. He hated when his family argued over him. "What's going on?" he asked his grandfather in a small voice.

"There are some things-"

"Don't you dare, Lucius!" Narcissa was back in the drawing room, looking furious. "Not now!"

"He's going to Harry bloody Potter's house; you don't think some things might come up?"

"Watch your language, and, no, why would anything come up during a short Christmas visit?"

Scorpius wanted to shrink until he was too small to be seen. His parents and grandparents seemed to always be fighting about him. He turned away when he felt his eyes prickle; tears just made his grandfather angrier. Lorcan put a hand on his shoulder. Just when Scorpius didn't think he could take the tension a minute longer, Uncle Greg and Aunt Pansy came stumbling out of the fireplace. Uncle Greg was holding a candy cane that was nearly as tall as Scorpius.

Astoria and Pansy exchanged air kisses. "You'd think you'd have your own family to spend Christmas with by now," Astoria said.

"But all my favorite boys are here," replied Pansy as she gave Scorpius a squeeze. Astoria's eyes narrowed when the other woman hugged Draco.

"I keep asking her to marry me, but she always says no," Greg said with comically exaggerated mournfulness.

"I can't imagine why," Lucius muttered.

The argument was forgotten, and Christmas was Christmas again.

...

Scorpius didn't want to leave the fireplace. A pretty red-haired woman that he'd seen at Platform Nine and Three-Quarters held her hand out to him. "A shy one, huh? Come on out. We're loud, but we don't bite. Wow, you really look like your father with that new hair-cut." She took him by the wrist and gently drew him into the kitchen. A ginger girl that looked about a year younger than Scorpius was staring at him wide-eyed. "That's Lily. She'll be at school with you next year. You can call me Ginny."

Lily followed them out of the kitchen, up some stairs and to a cozy living room. Harry Potter greeted them. So this man was famous. Scorpius had just assumed that people stared at him because of the scar. Scorpius wanted to know why Harry was famous, but knew better than to ask. Whatever it was, it made his family fight.

Albus grinned at them but James glowered. Harry turned and gave his eldest son a look. "Say hello to everyone."

"Hello, Lorcan and Lysander and Scorpius."

Huh. That was the first time James had ever used his actual name. James gave his father a resentful look. Uh-oh. McGonagall must have told Harry what she'd caught James saying that morning before everyone went home for Christmas, and then Harry must have scolded James, and... This was bad. James was going to get even with him later, Scorpius just knew it.

"When we're at school together, will you be my boyfriend?" Lily had taken his hand.

"I-ah-"

Lily took one of Lysander's hands. "Let's go play in the back garden." Albus and Lorcan followed.

"Aren't you going to go with them, James?" Scorpius heard. No, no, no, no, why?

Out in the small walled garden, James walked up to Scorpius, drawing himself up to his full height, glaring. "I can't believe there's a baby Death Eater at my house. You know my dad fought against your dad in the war? My dad is a hero. Your father is a Death Eater."

"What war?" Scorpius asked, confused. He'd never been told anything about a war.

Lily gave James a shove in the chest, but she was so much smaller that it didn't have much of an effect. "It's a forbidden subject, James!"

"Your father and your grandfather, they were both Death Eaters. They followed Volde-" A body hit James from behind, knocking him face-first into the snow.

It was Rose Weasley. "You know you're not supposed to talk about that," she chided as she sat astride him.

"His dad wanted to do away with people like your mum, Rose!" Rose grabbed him by the hair and shoved his face back into the snow, making him cough.

Scorpius turned around and went back into the house. In the living room, Harry Potter looked at him with a small frown. "Is everything all right?"

"Yes, sir." Scorpius sat on the couch and folded his hands together.

"You sure?"

"Yes. Thank you for asking."

"Think you could give my children some lessons in manners?" Harry asked teasingly.

Scorpius smiled, just a little. "Maybe." He looked down at the gaily-wrapped gift that the man dropped in his lap. It had the sort of bow on it that untied itself when one pressed it in the center. The paper unfolded itself, and inside were quills made from raven feathers.

"Rose said you could use those."

"Thank you, they're very nice," Scorpius said sincerely. They were quite pretty. He looked up at Harry, knowing that the man could probably answer the questions that he had. But he probably wouldn't. Grown-ups were good at keeping secrets. And Scorpius wasn't sure he really wanted to know yet.

"If my son James is bothering you, you can always let me know. He's a bit too much like his namesake, unfortunately." Scorpius just blinked at him. "Ah, well, I get the feeling you'd like to go back home." Scorpius nodded. "I'll round up the twins and send them with you." The man paused a moment. "You're really not much like your father or grandfather, are you?"

"No, sir."


	4. Chapter 4

"Thank you for having Scorpius over for Christmas," Astoria said to Ginny Potter. Draco and Harry Potter looked at each other and shuffled their feet. Scorpius was curious about the mysterious past between the two men. If they had really fought on different sides in the mysterious war, they didn't seem to carry any animus now. They just didn't seem to know what to say to one another. "He can be such a shy thing," his mum continued, "I think I've been a little too over-protective at times."

Scorpius could feel a flush starting at his neck and moving up. His mum tended to be nervous around people she didn't know, which sometimes led to her blurting out things that she really ought not to.

"He should spend more time with my crew," Ginny replied. "They're so outgoing, it's almost frightening." The ginger-haired woman had an arm around each of the Scamander twins. Her children had already boarded the train, so Scorpius didn't have to deal with the presence of James.

"Perhaps over the summer."

Ginny laughed. "My Lily-bear would love that. She's quite taken with Scorpius. She's always chattering about how she can't wait until she goes to school next year so he can be her boyfriend."

Scorpius prayed for a chasm to open at his feet and swallow him up. He stared down hard at the cage at his feet that held the silver Persian kitten his grandmother had given him. Lorcan had named it Chester.

The trained whistle tooted. "It's time to go, boys," Draco said, trying to hurry them on board.

"Not so fast! Mummy wants a hug." Astoria got Scorpius in an embrace so tight, he could hardly breathe, and she started to cry. Scorpius tried manfully to keep his eyes dry, without success. "I love you, Bunny."

"Tori, please," Draco groaned.

Finally, the trio was on the train and in their own compartment. Lysander held the frog's tank, while Lorcan had the caged Dennis on his lap. It was the proper time for Scorpius to bring up what had been on his mind since his visit to the Potters, now that he no longer had to worry about being overheard by Astoria or Narcissa. "Do you two know anything about a war that Harry Potter and my dad were in?"

The twins looked at each other, then back at Scorpius, both shaking their heads. "No, but grown-ups keep a lot of secrets," Lysander said.

"Like, Mum has nightmares that make her scream, but she won't ever say what they're about," added Lorcan.

"She doesn't speak much about her school days. I think Filch put her in the dungeon and hung her by her thumbs. They used to do that in the olden days, you know."

Lorcan put a hand on Scorpius' knee. "If you really want to know, go to Antonius Nott. For the right number of Galleons, he'll find out anything for you. I was able to prove the existence of Bandersnatches in the lake with his assistance."

"Those weren't Bandersnatches! Those were plesiosaurs, and you know it! Just like the Loch Ness monster! Bandersnatches are furry."

"They're _frumious_ Bandersnatches. Their frumiousness makes them go bald."

Scorpius sat quietly, listening to the twins argue as he thought about whether or not he really wanted to learn about the war and Death Eaters. Chester mewed, begging to be let out of his cage. Scorpius picked the kitten up and snuggled him while leaning against Lorcan. _How bad could it really be_? he thought to himself. It was his family, after all. His dad, who had flown him around on an old Nimbus2001 when he was too little to fly on his own, and who had so patiently taught him the basics of potion-making. His grandmother, who babied him nearly as much as his mother did. His grandfather, who, despite his gruffness, had always treated Scorpius with gentleness. He loved them. They were good people, no matter what James Potter said.

...

It was a full month since school had started again. All that time, Scorpius had fretted. He wanted to know. He didn't want to know. He had to know. He was afraid to know. Finally, after weeks of sleepless nights, he had approached Antonius Nott. A week later, the older boy had something for Scorpius.

"Here's everything you need to know." Nott handed a thick tome to Scorpius._ The Dark Lord's Men: Death Eaters and What They Did_, by Rita Skeeter. "That'll be thirty Galleons, please."

"That's awfully high," Scorpius protested.

"That's a forbidden book there. I could be expelled for bringing it onto school property. Pay up or you'll be sorry. Besides, you're a Malfoy. It's not as if you don't have it."

"Fine." Scorpius dug in his pocket for the money. Oh, well. He was lucky that Nott was even willing to do business with him. The Slytherins considered Scorpius to be a traitor to their house for being a Ravenclaw. He paid the older boy and wandered down the corridor looking for a private place to read.

Hogwarts was full of niches and nooks and crannies and odd little cupboards. Some of them weren't there all of the time. As he settled down on a bench in a curtained-off alcove, Scorpius wondered if it could 'disappear' with him in it. Would it be like being trapped in a cage for a week? Or would he just blink forward in time? No one seemed to know. Lysander was sure that such spaces couldn't vanish as long as a living being was in them.

Light came through a rose window with red, blue and purple glass. Scorpius sat cross-legged on the floor with the book in his lap. The cover image was of a grinning, winking woman wearing garish red lipstick. Scorpius thought it was a bit odd that the author's photo was on the front cover. The book was older than Scorpius, and the spine was broken in several places. Scorpius flipped it open toward the back and found the index. He ran his finger down a column. H,I,J,K,L... M. Malfoy, Draco. Malfoy, Lucius.

The book was about eight-hundred pages long, but Scorpius was a fast reader, and he had the entire weekend ahead of him.

...

Scorpius stared at the book. He'd set it down on the floor by his feet, and he contemplated setting it on fire with his wand. Horrible. It was horrible. His family were torturers, murderers. Malfoy Manor, his beloved home, had been used as a prison. And one of the prisoners had been the mother of Lorcan and Lysander. Was that why she had nightmares?

It was late Saturday morning, and he had read all through the night except for a couple of furtive bathroom breaks. The hard stone floor leached the warmth from his body and made his rump ache, but he had taken in every word of the book. So many times, he wanted to stop, to leave the book behind and never come back to it, but he had a strange compulsion to know the whole truth. After finishing the book, it took a couple of hours for what he had read to sink in. Now he was overwhelmed with feelings of revulsion, betrayal, and grief. He wanted his mother, the one member of his family who was as innocent as he. But... but she must have known. She must have known what her husband had done, and she married him anyway. Scorpius' mother, who cried over songbirds with broken wings, married to a man who had Crucio'd people, and who was suspected of murder. It was inconceivable. Did that make his mum a bad person, too?

It was all too much. Scorpius wanted Lorcan and Lysander, but he didn't have what it took get to his feet and walk. He curled up into a tight little ball and sobbed.

The curtain was whooshed aside. "I should have known it was you, Cry-Baby Malfoy." James, of course, and the two hulking Gryffindor Beaters.

"L-l-l-leave m-m-me al-l-lone-" Between his sobs and his stutter, Scorpius could barely speak.

James picked up the book, smirking. "Now you know what kind of trash you are."

Scorpius uncurled, sitting up and glaring through his tears. "D-don't t-t-t-talk t-t- m-m-m-me th-that w-way!"

"My father is a hero. Your father is a filthy Death Eater. I can talk to you any way I like." James threw the book down hard enough to make a few pages fly out of it, nearly hitting Scorpius in the head with it.

"I'm-I'm n-n-not m-m-m-m-my my f-father and n-neither are y-y-you!"

James turned and looked at his friends. "Did you hear that? I'm not his father. I can't tell you how relieved I am to hear that."

A rage like he'd never felt before came over Scorpius. His heart pounded, his armpits got sticky, and he bared his teeth. He could feel his hair stand up on end as sparks popped in and out of existence around him.

James curled his upper lip in disgust. "You really are a baby. You can't even control your magic."

"S-st-stop c-c-calling m-m-m-me a b-baby!" In the blink of an eye, the sparks coalesced into a ball and zoomed at James, hitting him smack in the middle of his forehead. His brown eyes crossed as he teetered back and forth. All six feet of him came crashing down, nearly crushing Scorpius.

The two Beaters panicked. "You killed him!" one shouted.

In a panic,Scorpius smashed into the two bigger boys, knocking them out of the way, and fled down the hall.

...

"You're going to have to come out of there sometime." The Headmistress' voice was gentle, but Scorpius just scooted further in, among the pipes and the dark and the damp of the bathroom utility crawlspace. "Will you at least talk to me? It took me ages to find you."

"I'm g-g-going t-to b-b-b-b-be exp-p-pelled, aren't I?"

"James will be fine. I've spoken to his friends, and it's clear that he provoked you. You're not in any trouble."

Scorpius snuffled a little. Merlin, how could he still produce tears? He should have been wrung dry by now. His eyes ached from crying so much. It was just as well that his nose was all stuffed up; the crawlspace probably stank. "W-what ab-bout the b-b-b-b-book?"

McGonagall was quiet for a moment. "Rita Skeeter. She... she doesn't lie in that book, exactly, but she doesn't tell the whole truth."

"S-s-s- m-my f-f-f-father r-really t-tortured p-people?"

"He was just a boy, Scorpius."

"I'm j-just a b-b-b-boy."

"A boy in much different circumstances. And such a different boy from the rest of the Malfoy men. You're the fourth that I've known. Abraxas, Lucius, Draco. You may look like them, but inside, you're all Astoria. Did you ever hear the story about your mother and the kittens?"

"N-no."

The Headmistress chuckled. "She found out that fourth years were going to be taught how to Vanish kittens and was utterly horrified. So she snuck into the classroom the night before and freed all the kittens from their cages. There were kittens roaming the castle for months. Once they moved into the kitchens, we just gave up on trying to round them up." There was a pause. "Will you come out now, please? That's not a very pleasant place to be."

"Yes, please come out," said a familiar voice. "We miss you." It was Lorcan. His voice was just a tiny bit lower than Lysander's.

"And so does Chester," Lysander said.

Scorpius felt so much happier, so much calmer hearing those two voices. "I'm r-really not in t-trouble? N-not even f-for the book?"

"To tell the truth," the Headmistress said, "I was one of those behind keeping the war and all that a secret from your generation. We thought that it would be healthy. That it would prevent rivalries. But it's become clear that it's not... working as well as we thought. No, you're not in trouble for the book."

There was a part of Scorpius-a large part-that wanted to stay in the dark. But he could see the twins just outside the utility closet, and a larger part wanted to go to them, to the known comfort of of their arms. And he was pretty sure he had spiders in his hair. He started crawling out, ducking dripping pipes.

McGonagall grimaced when he emerged. "You need a bath, young man."

The twins didn't seem to care that Scorpius was covered in dirt and cobwebs. They flanked him, each with an arm around him. Scorpius was afraid he was gong to start blubbering again, it felt so nice. "Did you see any albino alligators in there?" Lorcan asked eagerly.

"I'm afraid not. Just bugs and rats."

"What sort of rats? Mutants?"

"Just the ordinary sort."

"I saw a rat with a human head in the Astronomy Tower, once."

"You did not!" Lysander snapped.

Scorpius' world had just rotated one-hundred and eighty degrees, and he felt like he no longer really knew anyone in his family, but there were two things he could still count on. Two someones.

The twins walked him toward the Ravenclaw dorms. A tall figure wearing jeans and a sweatshirt was striding down the corridor toward them. Lorcan and Lysander were happy to see the famous Harry Potter, but Scorpius shrank back. If anyone ever knocked him unconscious, his father would pitch a fit. Back when he was six, his father had taken him to a Muggle playground. Another little boy had pushed him off of the slide, opening a blood-gushing gash on his forehead, and Draco actually got into a brawl with the other boy's father. What might Harry Potter want to do to Scorpius?

"Don't be scared, Scorpius. James is fine," Harry said.

"Y-you're n-n-not angry w-with m-me?"

"I could never be angry with someone fairly defending himself." The slayer of the Dark Lord ruffled Scorpius' hair and continued down the corridor.

...

As winter drew near its end, Scorpius still felt lost, adrift. Every day, owls delivered frantic letters from his mum, demanding to know what was wrong, why he never wrote home any more. He had tried to reply, many times. But he would just stare at the parchment, his pen hand unable to move. What could he possibly write?

_Dear Dad, _

_How are you? I am fine, except I read about how you were a part of a plot to kill your Headmaster, and that you allowed bad people into Hogwarts, and that you Crucio'd many people. I read that some people claim you are a murderer. _

_Love, _

_Scorpius _

It was better to just not write at all, even though the letters from his mother tore him up inside. His appetite had waned, and he was so skinny, he could hang things on his hip bones. He still didn't sleep well, and when he did, he had bad dreams. Somehow, he kept his schoolwork up. He got up every morning on time, got dressed, went to class, and did his homework, but he didn't have the same joy for learning that he had before. He didn't feel joy at all, really. The world had gone monochrome, except for the twins. Scorpius didn't know how he would ever be able to function without them.

On the plus side, he didn't have to worry about being bullied any more. James, after a week's recovery in hospital, had started avoiding Scorpius. With James being one of the more popular boys at Hogwarts, others followed his lead. Scorpius was finally left in peace. It was too bad he couldn't enjoy it more.

"Our parents are going to be home for Easter holidays!" Lysander said excitedly as he cut up his breakfast sausage.

Lorcan was reading the letter the twins had just received. "They captured a Yara-ma-yha-who!"

"A... what?"

"A creature that repeatedly swallows and regurgitates its human victims until they themselves become Yara-ma-yha-who," Lysander replied. Scorpius lost what little appetite he had.

"Mum wants to know if you want to stay with us," Lorcan said.

Scorpius had been wondering what he would do, what he would say when he had to see his parents again. This would give him a reprieve. Or so he thought.

...

It was an ambush.

Scorpius had received another note telling him that Headmistress McGonagall wanted to talk to him. It was a nearly weekly occurrence. He hoped she wasn't going to ask him if he was thinking about hurting himself, like she had the last three times.

As soon as he stepped into the Headmistress' office and saw his parents, Scorpius wanted to run away. The Rita Skeeter book sat on McGonagall's desk. His father got up from his chair with an expression that Scorpius had never seen on his face before. "Please, come here, Scorps." Draco's mouth was tight, the corners drawn down. His eyes were wide and... Scorpius felt frozen in place when he saw the shimmer of impending tears. He had never seen his dad cry. He had not thought it was possible. Just seeing the threat of it made Scorpius' stomach feel funny.

His mum, of course, was already weeping. "We didn't want you to find out about it this way, Bunny," she wailed.

Scorpius still stood near the top of the staircase. There was a strange doubling in his perception; his parents were at once both the most familiar people in the world to him, and complete strangers. The hand his father held out to him had been used to inflict unimaginable agony. "Y-you t-t-told m-m-m-me th-the s-sc-scar on y-your arm w-w-was f-from a b-b-bad b-b-b-b-b-burn," he found himself saying.

"It was, in a way," Draco replied. "I had my Dark Mark burned off. It hurt terribly." The scrim of tears in his left eye shivered, releasing one drop. Mouth open, Scorpius watched it roll down his father's cheek. "I never wanted to do any of it. None of it. I regret it every single day, Scorps."

It just was not possible for Scorpius to speak. The emotions that warred inside of him paralyzed his throat and tongue. He looked at his mother, wanting so badly to throw himself into her lap, but he couldn't reconcile the girl who had saved dozens of kittens from Vanishment with the woman who loved and married a known torturer. If he had been able to speak, he would have said, "I don't know you."

Scorpius could only flee. And he did.

...

"Dear Bunny,

I'm going to miss you so much over Easter, and so will your father and your grandparents and your Uncle Greg and all the animals. I hope you have a good time at the Scamanders. Remember that we all love you very much. I know it's hard for someone so young to understand about the war, and some of the decisions that people had to make, and some of the things that people had no choice but to do. A part of growing up is learning to forgive your parents their imperfections.

Love,

Mum"

Scorpius folded the letter up and put it in his pocket. He used to destroy the letters from his mother as soon as he had read them, fearing the torment he would receive if anyone found out that she still called him Bunny, but he wasn't concerned any more. Even though he wasn't going to write back, he wanted the letter as a token of his mother. He might not know what to say to her these days, but he still craved her love.

"Ready to go?" Lorcan called from the hall that connected the Ravenclaw boys' dorms. "I've got Reginald and Dennis sorted. I was going to put them in the same tank, but Lysander says that's a bad idea."

Chester, who had not gotten very big yet, fit cozily into the patch pocket of Scorpius' pullover sweater. "I'm ready."

...

Luna and Rolf Scamander were both blond, though Rolf's hair was lighter than Luna's dirty-blond shade. The twins got their pale gray eyes from their mother, and their emerging spindly-limbed height from their father.

"That's very convenient, having a cat-pouch on your sweater. Cats are known to keep away Blibbering Humdingers," Luna said when she saw Chester peeking out of Scorpius' pocket.

"He's rather boring, though," Lorcan interjected. "He doesn't spit fire or have poisonous claws or anything."

"But cats are naturally fascinating," Lysander said. "The ancient Egyptians loved them so much that nobles had their pets interred with them so they could be together in the afterlife."

"Egypt is the origin point of all domestic cats," Rolf pontificated. "Their presence allowed agriculture to flourish, since they ate the vermin that spread disease. It's no wonder that they regarded as deities, since we might not have civilization without them."

Between the four Scamanders, there was no need for Scorpius to talk at all, which was quite all right with him. Their chatter took his mind off his troubles. He learned about dirigible plums, the crumple-horned snorcack, and the Tasmanian tiger. He heard theories about how the giant squid got into the lake at Hogwarts. And he listened to another debate about whether or not albino alligators existed in the United Kingdom outside of the London sewers.

The Scamander cottage looked quite ordinary from the outside (except for the dirigible plums), but inside it was full of tanks and cages containing all manner of creatures. Lorcan led Scorpius to an aquarium full of little silver fish. "Scoop some up with that net and drop them in the Grindylow tank." Scorpius watched in horrified fascination as the Grindylows went into a feeding frenzy, roiling the water in their tank as they tore the little fishes to bits. "We're raising them for the Ministry. They're used for underwater exploration."

Scorpius watched a niffler tearing up the newspapers that lined its cage, and a tank swarming with ugly little beasts called naked mole rats. He supposed that the mole rats were venomous or something. The three boys were playing with a Pygmy Puff when they were called to dinner.

The meal was served by a cheerful, hump-backed house elf, and consisted of things that Scorpius wasn't familiar with. He was very happy that water was served because the other beverage that he was given tasted like slightly charred tree-bark with a trace of moldy socks. The meat entree was oddly rubbery and smothered with purple mushrooms, and the veggies on the side were positively extraterrestrial in appearance.

"We captured a breeding pair of bunyips," Luna said. "They're at the Ministry. It wasn't easy to to get them. I nearly died when one dragged me into a billabong and tried to drown me, but your father was able to save me with a stunning spell." She turned her protuberant eyes on Scorpius. "What do your parents do for a living, Scorpius?"

His mouth went dry. "My m-m-mum d-doesn't have a j-job. S-she does charity w-work. D-d-dad works f-for G-g-grandfather." Did Luna look at him and think about what had happened to her in the house where he grew up?

"I knew your father a little, long ago." Luna gazed at Scorpius consideringly. "He wasn't as quiet as you at first, but he got quieter."

...

The Scamanders lived in a sort of happy chaos. Meals came at random times. Homework sessions could be interrupted at any moment by a house elf tearing through the room shouting, "Let's play tag! You're it!" The pond in the back garden was warmed magically for night-time skinny-dipping. Grandfather Lucius would die if forced to live under such conditions. Scorpius enjoyed it, though he was more of an observer than a participant. He had not been feeling very playful of late.

It was the morning of Easter Sunday, and everyone had on their best outfits. The definition of 'best outfit' was very elastic. Scorpius had dove-gray dress robes that had been custom made by Madame Twilfit herself, and new leather boots. Luna wore radishes on her ears, and a coat of strangely tufted greenish fur. Rolf's knee-high boots were genuine basilisk skin. The twins looked like they had gotten dressed in the dark, wearing mismatched shirts and trousers and necklaces strung with random items; Scorpius recognized one of the Happy Meal Transformer toys on Lorcan's necklace.

Church was held in a stone chapel not much bigger than a broom closet. A senile vicar rambled on for a while about the relationship between the Christ and Cadbury Creme Eggs while Luna's father, a man with vague, slightly-crossed eyes, took notes. It was a lovely, sunny day, and there was a picnic afterwards in the churchyard. Xenophilius Lovegood and the vicar had a long, meandering conversation about a supposed infestation of rats with thumbs, which, the vicar insisted, had stolen all of his Cadbury Creme Eggs. Scorpius wasn't surprised to learn that the vicar was Xenophilius' uncle.

Scorpius was there, but he felt like there was an invisible barrier around him that prevented him from truly belonging. He couldn't step outside of his own head. The same thoughts went around and around in his mind. It didn't help that Luna kept looking at him. Was his presence causing her distress?

After the picnic lunch (a salad made of odd purple leaves covered with a mud-colored dressing), Scorpius moved away from the main group, sitting on a mossy old headstone to watch the twins run around chasing garden gnomes. He started when Luna sat at his feet. After casting a muffling spell, she leaned her head on one hand and gazed up at him. "You don't have to be afraid of me. I'm not bitter toward you or your family for anything that happened during the war."

This was a very surprising thing to hear, not least because it was so straightforward; Luna usually talked in diagonals and zigzags. "D-d-d-did th-they h-h-hurt y-you?" he blurted out.

"Not physically. I was just a hostage. And being left in the dark gave me lots of time to get acquainted with Rufous Squirt-Beetles. No one has ever seen them in the light, you know. They puff out a mist that gives one good dreams. You're very lucky to have grown up in a house infested with them." Luna was still looking at Scorpius, her gaze a bit sharper than usual. "Your father didn't want to do what he did. I saw him Crucio someone once, but he only did it because the Dark Lord told him his mother would be killed if he didn't. Your grandfather followed the Dark Lord by choice in the beginning, but he regretted it in the end. Even down in the cellar, I could hear Lucius scream when the Dark Lord punished him. There was barely anything left of him after the war. Whatever he he did, he paid for it dearly."

Luna paused a moment, considering her next words. "Those were terrible days. A lot of people did what they had to do to protect themselves or their loved one." Her gaze moved to her father. "We have to live forward, not backwards." She patted Scorpius on the ankle. "I hope you won't be angry with the twins for telling me about why you've been so quiet." She stood up and walked over to assist her husband, who was busy stuffing garden gnomes in the picnic basket.

Scorpius saw the twins walking along the churchyard wall. Lorcan nearly fell, waving his arms wildly as he regained his balance. Lysander leapt from the wall to a stone bench. It was no wonder they were rumored to be changelings; they seemed half-feral at times. They were beautiful, really, with their loose-limbed grace and their wild hair. Scorpius realized that for weeks, it had been as if there was a pane of glass between him and the twins; he observed them, but wasn't really with them. It was how he tended to be with the world in general, but the twins, from the moment he first met them, had always found a way through his barriers. Since reading that terrible book, he had walled himself off from everyone. He put a hand into the pocket of his robes, touching the last letter he'd gotten from his mother.

Scorpius knew he couldn't stay like he was; he was suffocating himself. He jumped off the headstone and walked to the moss-covered wall, hiking up his robes and climbing up beside Lorcan. The twin smiled brilliantly at him, eyes crinkled nearly shut. "I'll bet you Reginald that you cannot successfully push me off," Lorcan said. Lorcan was correct. Scorpius' dress robes did not survive the day, but it was worth it.

...

Scorpius paused for a moment, clutching his handful of Floo powder. "Just give me ten minutes alone, all right?" he told the twins. Squaring his shoulders, he tossed the powder and stepped through the green flames into the drawing room of Malfoy Manor, and almost directly into his mother's arms. He nestled in, fighting the urge to bawl with happiness.

"We're so glad you decided to come visit, even if it's just for a little while," she said into his hair. He peeped around her at his father, who hung back, putting his hands in his trouser pockets and then taking them out again. The sight of Draco looking so uncertain of what to do was unsettling. Scorpius gave him a little smile; Draco smiled back, then turned away for a moment. "Your Uncle Greg is coming later," Astoria said.

"And Aunt Pansy, too?"

Astoria's voice got a wee bit cooler. "Yes."

His mother smelled comfortingly the same as ever, of Chanel No. 5 and talcum powder. His father's hand, when it came to rest on his shoulder, felt familiar as it gave him a reassuring squeeze. _They're the same people that they've always been_, Scorpius realized. _My knowing about the past doesn't change who they are at all_. His mother released him, and he walked to the table where his grandparents sat. Grandmother shoved a Persian off her lap so she could hug Scorpius, and Lucius actually set his paper down on the table and gave his grandson his full attention.

The twins came tumbling out of the fireplace. Uncle Greg wasn't far behind. "Oh, look, now we have four children in the manor," Lucius muttered as he picked up his newspaper again. The boys laughed and shrieked as Greg chased them all around the manor. By the time Pansy showed, it was time for supper; Greg proposed to her over dessert, and she declined. Afterward, everyone gathered around the wireless to listen to an Easter concert, and Lorcan and Lysander astonished and confused with a long, convoluted story about how their parents defeated some sort of Caribbean horror that was called a duppy.

The invisible wall around Scorpius was crumbling, and, even though it had been weeks since the older boy had bullied him, Scorpius only now really, truly felt like he had defeated James Sirius Potter.

FOUR YEARS AND SOME MONTHS LATER

"I can't believe that I have to go a whole year without you two," Scorpius moaned.

"Just make sure you do well on your NEWTs, and you'll be able to join us as soon as you graduate," Lysander said.

"Catching Scrofulated Nematodes for the Minisrty just won't be as fun without you," Lorcan added.

"Oh, quit your whining," Lily Potter said around the threaded needle she held between her lips. "Once Scorps and Al and Rose are out of school, I'll be all by myself. I don't know what I'll do." The ginger-haired girl was on her knees doing a last-minute adjustment to Scorpius' costume.

Al Potter, who was lounging on a bench, looked up and grinned. "Get an actual boyfriend instead of spending all your time fruitlessly pining after Scorps?"

"Shut it, or I'll sew it up. Now, are you sure you want to go through with this, Scorps? Lucy's head is going to explode."

"If my grandfather ever finds out that you call him Lucy, he'll turn you into a rabbit and set his dogs on you."

"And his reaction to this will be...?" Rose waved her hand at Scorpius' costume.

"He won't hex _me_. He'll just shout a lot and turn purple. I'm not sure what he'll do to the twins, though. I'm sure he'll blame them."

The Hogwarts choir finished its performance, and they could hear the Headmistress addressing the students and family members that thronged the Great Hall. "I hope you have all enjoyed the fruits of the new and improved Hogwarts arts program. We have just one more act, and then the school year is officially over." Loud cheers. "Scorpius Malfoy and the Scamander twins set a challenge for the entire school. It was to raise ten thousand Galleons for the Janus Thickey Ward of St. Mungo's. They promised that, if the goal was reached, they would perform the Volcano Goddess Dance of the Black Hibiscus Islands, a Polynesian land thought to be mythical until it was located and mapped by Luna and Rolf Scamander during their years-long quest to find the creature known as the Waitoreke." McGonagall paused a moment and cleared her throat. "Ah, this dance is usually performed by young women."

When the three boys emerged onstage in their grass skirts and black hibiscus leis, the students of Hogwarts erupted into a gleeful pandemonium. Drums started a wild beat, and Scorpius went into the movements that he had learned during his summer spent in the Black Hibiscus Islands with the twins. The audience howled and whistled. The Volcano Goddess Dance was taboo for the men of the islands, but the women had been happy to teach it to three pale, foreign boys. The arms moved gracefuly, telling a story while the hips stayed in constant motion, churning and shimmying, and the feet stepped in small patterns. It made the ballroom dancing that his grandmother had insisted he learn seem as simple as taking a stroll. Lorcan was the best at it, so he was the one who danced in front while twirling torches.

Scanning the crowd, Scorpius could see Luna and Rolf beaming proudly. Where was... oh, yes, there his parents were. Astoria snapped pictures while Draco rubbed his jaw, looking a bit adrift. Uncle Greg laughed uproariously, his arm around Aunt Pansy, who was enormously pregnant and enormously amused. Grandmother smiled, while Grandfather... Scorpius missed a beat, worrying for a few seconds that Lucius might just keel over dead. His face was beyond purple. The rhythm went faster and faster, and Scorpius stopped watching the crowd, too intent on matching his hip movements to the beat. By the end of the dance, he was covered in sweat and breathless. The three boys went to the front of the stage, put their arms around each other, and bowed; Lysander blew kisses, which just made the students even more crazed. McGonagall tried to get a few last words of farewell in, but she gave up. The student body was on its collective feet, roaring.

Scorpius quickly ducked into the dressing area to change back into jeans and a tee shirt before finding his family. "Bloody hell, Scorpius, you're getting to be nearly as sexy as your daddy," Pansy burbled, ignoring the murderous glare she was getting from Astoria.

"Are you going home with us?" Astoria asked.

"No, I'm taking the H. E. like everyone else, and then I'll be going directly to the party at the Scamander's. Where's Grandfather?"

"Looking for firewhiskey," Draco replied. "I don't think he was prepared for the sight of his heir in a coconut bra."

"Well, I've got to get going so I don't miss the train." Scorpius hugged everyone. Uncle Greg nearly cracked his ribcage. "Love you, Mum," Scorpius said, and he kissed his mother's cheek. He went to his dorm and got everything packed, and managed to get a very grumpy Chester into his cage. It was time to catch the H. E.

The party was starting a little early. A bunch of the older students had completely taken over the last train car, shooing out the younger kids and spelling the connecting door shut. Scorpius was crammed in a seat between the twins. Al and Xanthippe Shacklebolt were snogging in the other seat while Lily and Rose Weasley sat on the floor. They passed around a flask. Scorpius drank just enough firewhiskey to feel loose and mellow, ignoring Al's taunts of being a light-weight. His butt started feeling squished, so he sprawled across Lorcan and Lysander. He was really, really going to miss the easy, casual affection of the twins. Lysander tangled his fingers in Scorpius' shoulder-length hair, and Scorpius half-closed his eyes, letting the soothing touch and the motion of the train put him in a light trance. The trip to London seemed too short.

From the station, the group went to the Leaky Cauldron and Flooed to the Scamander place. Rolf and Luna were gone, out hunting mega-anacondas in the Amazon. The kids raided the pantry and brought the wireless outside and turned it up as loud as it would go. By the time the sun went down, there were skinny-dippers in the pond. Owls and cats and one platypus gamboled in the dark.

Scorpius had built a fire, and he and the twins were sprawled in front of it. The firelight set orange highlights in Lorcan and Lysander's hair, glinting among the messy waves. Their moonstone-colored eyes were slightly out of focus from the firewhiskey. Scorpius was on his back, and the twins were on either side, smiling down at him. Somehow, it seemed entirely natural to kiss first Lorcan, and then Lysander. Scorpius had been kissed before; he and Lily had experimented a little. But these kisses, even though they were quite chaste, felt different. Kissing Lily had not been unpleasant, but when it was over, Scorpius had felt no desire to repeat the experience. He wanted to feel Lorcan's silky lips slide across his again, and to feel the warmth of Lysander's cheek next to his own. Again and again and again.

"I was wondering when that would finally happen," Al said, watching Lorcan kiss Scorpius on the tip of his nose as Lysander held Scorpius' hand.

Scorpius had to get up to go to the toilet. When he went back outside, Rose grabbed him by the collar of his shirt. "You can't be with both of them _that _way! You have to choose one."

Well, this was just typical. Rose Weasley, setter and enforcer of rules. "Why?" Scorpius asked.

"Because it's just not done! If you have two boyfriends, people will think you're a slut."

Scorpius smiled and ran a hand through his hair. "Today, I shook my arse in front of hundreds of people while wearing a coconut bra. Do you really think I care that much about the opinions that other people have about me?" Rose sputtered, trying to come up with another argument. "You know, if I had never met the twins, I wold have never become the sort of person that would do something like that. I wouldn't have decided to be a naturalist, either. They're a big part of who I am. Choose one? It's not possible."

"it's not right. A couple is _two_."

"We are three." It was Lorcan, embracing Scorpius from behind.

"People are going to think you're all... _strange_."

"Too late." Lysander took Scorpius by the arm. "Come back by the fire. We're going to roast some sort of Muggle food on sticks."

The twins were amused by the way marshmallows caught fire, and loved the way the blackened 'skin' burst open in their mouths. Their kisses got sticky and sweet. "I wish I didn't have to finish school, " Scorpius groaned, "I wish I could go with you two."

"It's very important to finish school," Rose said, but no one was listening to her.

Scorpius stood up and pulled off his shirt. "We've got marshmallow gunk all over us. Let's jump in the pond." He headed away from the fire and shucked the rest of his clothing, hitting the water in a cannon-ball dive and making the girls that were already in the pond scream. The twins joined him, and they engaged in a three-way dunking and splashing battle. Yes, it was going to be a long school-year without the twins. But they still had all summer to be together, and Scorpius was going to make the best of it.

_We are three_, Lorcan had said. All fairy tales and romances ended with two people living happily ever after, but Scorpius intended to be the author of his own life; _his_ happy ending would be for three.


End file.
